Granen pushed his way through the foliage in an effort to find the source of the voice calling for help. Now my subconscious has come alive…  No way anyone could be in my dream world.  This be gettin’ stranger all the time.

The misty green-grey surrounded him, dust motes shimmering in silver air.  The rustling of the leaves as he brushed them sounded like tinkling metal.  Beyond a wall of maple leaves he found the one in need of help.  In a tattered white gown she sat feebly in the clearing, her eerie bright green eyes like emeralds shifting in the light.  She looked up at him with an expression of otherworldly innocence, and he would have sworn she was a fae if he didn’t already know her as the queen of Sunset City.

“Sarah?  Lass, whatcha be doin’ in Jareth’s paintin’?  Blimey, if he’s done this to get you in his grips, then I musta had no true notion of how desperate he was to ‘ave you.  You bein’ alright Lady?”

“Where… where am I?” she stammered.  “Where did I come from?”

“I can’t answer that second part for ya, and, frankly, I don’ think I can answer the first part, either.  I don’ really know where we are meself.  I just know I stepped through one’a Jareth’s paintin’s, and here I am.  A dismal place this be, but your company I am sure will alleviate that.”  He reached down and helped her up, putting her left arm round his shoulders so that he might prop her up in her dizzied state.  “C’mon over here, Lass, sit down on this log.  You look ‘orrible, like you been dragged through the ringer.  You sure you can’t remember what happened?”

Sarah looked into the distance and struggled for an inkling of what came before her present state.  “No…”  When she turned to gaze at Granen, remembrance flashed in her fae eyes, causing the man to shiver visibly, his face blushing red, like he had been utterly exposed.  “Wait,” she said, breaking his stupor.  “I do remember.  I was in Kaleb’s castle, and I looked into a kind of mirror… And…”  She looked horribly disturbed by the next idea.

“What is it?” Kaleb asked in dread.

“It… it was an awful feeling.  Like I was being separated from myself.  I feel strange.  Like I’m free, like all the dark parts came away.”

“Why do ya look so upset if you feel free?” Kaleb asked in confusion.

“Because I’m not who I am.  I’m alone.  Out of balance, I guess.” She paused as it sunk in.  “I’m alone.”  She looked away idly, contemplating the thought gravely.

“Now don’ be silly, Love.  I’m here.”

“No,” she said, still staring in the distance.  “That’s not what I mean.  I’m alone inside.  Vulnerable.  I don’ know how to protect myself.  But I can’t tell you how… or what it is I mean.  I can’t explain.  It’s just awful.”

“Well, I’ll protect you, Love.  Don’ you worry, Granen’s ‘ere, and there’s no one I can’t cut down with my sharp wit.”  He gave her a becoming grin, to which she responded in kind. 

“That’s nice of you.”

“Ah, think nothin’ of it.”  He looked into the hazy, shifting colors in the distance and said, “If you’re feelin’ up to it, you might help me figure out how we can get ourselves out of this mess.”

“Yeah, I feel better,” she answered.  “Well enough, anyhow.  Where do you suppose we are?  I doubt Kaleb would have sent me into one of Jareth’s paintings, no matter how cruel his sense of irony is.”

“We’ve got to be somewhere in the Underground.  Doesn’t look like anyplace I’ve been to, though,” Granen said.

Sarah rose and brushed herself off.  “You know, it kind of reminds me of the Mist of Dreams.  I mean, I’ve never been there, but it sounds like the legends.”

“Oh, don’t be sayin’ things like that,” Granen replied with a chill.

“Why?  What did I say?”

Granen started them off in a random direction.  “If you know that much about the Mists, you probably also ‘eard that no one comes out of the Mists, either.  Now, if you end up in a fantasy land of yer making, then that would be a grand vacation, but, if you end up in a nightmare of yer making, you’re really done for.  And I don’ think many folks end up with lovely dreams.”

“Maybe it all depends on the circumstances,” Sarah replied.  “I don’t know, if we are in the Mists, I don’t feel so worried.  I feel like we can get ourselves out.  I don’t think there’s any puzzle you can’t solve if you try hard enough.  It may take us a little while…” 

She drifted off suddenly with a hazy gaze into the impressionistic forest.

Granen broke the silence.  “You, uh, realize that your eyes have changed colors, eh?”

“Really?” she answered in surprise.  “What color are they?”

“Bright green, like me mother’s,” Granen answered.  “Actually, no.  Not like me mother’s.  They’re brighter.  Like a river in sunlight.”

“You are a flatterer too, huh?”

“What, me?  ‘Course I am.  Why you think Jareth keeps company with me?” He chuckled lightly, but quickly sobered.  “But for once I don’t be flatterin’, Love.  Your eyes aren’t becoming of a lady.  They are becoming more of a faery.  An’ trust me, I know enough faeries to say for sure I’m not lyin’ to ya.”

“How strange,” she answered.  “Kind of like Jareth.”

“What do ya mean?” Understandly flashed across his face.  “Oh, yes, his eyes are green, too.”

She shook her head.  “But they didn’t use to be.  More often than not, they were blue.  But, now that he is back, they’re green.”

“More often than not?” he asked.  “You make it sound like his eyes had multiple personalities.”

“They did.  So did he.  Whenever he was kind, his eyes turned green.  When cruel, they were icy blue.  At least, that’s how it was four years ago.  Maybe it had something to do with the fact that his shadow was living inside of him.”

“Ah, so he’s told you about that, has’e?”

“Yes.  Though I found it hard to believe him at first.  But, the more I think about it, the more I realize how he must have been struggling inside.  That’s why his behavior was so erratic.”  She sighed heartily.  “Poor man.”

Granen gave her a curious look out of the corner of his eye.  “You seem awfully sympathetic.  Jareth was convinced you would be as willing to forgive him as rain in a firestorm.”

“Hmm.  I wasn’t willing to forgive him.  I don’t know, I feel very different about it right now.  I have no hurtful feelings toward him at all.  I just wonder why he left.”  She was quiet a moment, then added, “You know, there is something really wrong, because I hated him not two hours ago.”

“I’m sure that from his perspective he’d be seein’ this as a good turn of affairs,” Granen answered with a laugh.  “Maybe it has something to do with what Kaleb did to you.  Though I can’t see why he’d instill you with feelin’s of love an’ ‘appiness, then send you to the Mist of Dreams.  I just don’ see where he might be goin’ with this plan.”

“I don’t know, maybe I’ll remember something that will give us a clue.”

“You keep tryin’ to figure it out.  Ya never know, you might find it’s connected to how we’ll be getting’ outta ‘ere.”

“Tell me, Granen, why did Jareth leave me four years ago?  When we were together, when I got the amethyst, he seemed to have changed completely.  He swore he loved me and meant no harm.  He must have been freed from his shadow by that point.  Then he gave me the kingdom…”  She looked frustrated all of a sudden.  “But I really only wanted to share it with him, deep down!” she exclaimed.   “I was still young then, most of it was just attraction… but through the past four years I can truly say I think that we were soulmates, somehow.  I mean, I honestly never really got to know him that well, and had seen little kindness from him.  But there was a connection.  I even felt it with him once he revealed himself after the contest through the Labyrinth earlier.  And I know he must have felt it too.  Why did he leave then?  We had such a good chance!”

Granen shook his head somberly.  “Ah, Lass, things are always more difficult than we can see on the outside.  Just think of what he was going through.  For more years than you can imagine, he had been coexisting and being controlled by a force that lived inside himself.  When you came into his life the first time, he began to realize how disgusted he was with the turn his life had taken, and he slowly allowed himself to become fully aware of what was inside of him.  As he did this, the shadow took stronger means to control ‘im… This is probably what you saw those four years ago, when he seemed torn in his emotions.   Once he rid himself of the beast, whatcha be thinkin’ was goin’ through ‘is ‘ead?  He didn’ know who’e was…  How could’e truly share’is love with you if he wasn’t sure what he was sharin’?  And how could he think you would understand at that moment?” 

“I would’ve understood,” Sarah said quietly.

“Ah, but it was more’n that to ‘im.  He didn’ wanna take away your chance to live in your dreams, to enjoy your youth.  Trust me, he ‘ad many demons to battle, I been with ‘im through it the past three years.  It was an all out war in ‘is soul.  I think ‘e did the right thing, for better or worse.  It takes a strong man to take such an effort to face the darkness within ‘imself, ‘specially as deliberately as Jareth did.  And he did it for you.  Don’ you ever be forgettin’ that.”

Sarah was amazingly quiet throughout Granen’s narrative.  All she could say was, “Thank you for explaining it all to me.”

“You’re welcome, Lass.  Glad I could ‘elp.”

*        *        *

Isabelle pushed back the secret passageway to Hoggle Senior’s chambers to find an empty room.  “That’s curious,” she said.  “Where could they have gone?”

The candles had nearly burned down to nothing by now.  Determined to figure out where the Hiddleburys were, she left the room, and took a torch from the wall to use for light and protection, just in case any crazy critters crossed her path.

“Okay,” she said quietly and nervously, “n-now don’t anyone come near me, I’m dangerous.”  She thought about that a moment, then decided to grab a second torch.  “Yeah,” she said a little more firmly, as if trying to instill confidence in herself.  “I – AM – DANGEROUS.  Remember that.  Make it real, Isabelle.  Me.  Isabelle.  What does that spell?  DANGEROUS.  Right, ok, I got it.”

She didn’t really seem completely convinced, but she did put forth an effort.  Timidly she inched past corners in search for Hoggle and his family, but it wasn’t long before she found the dwarf.

He startled her as he bumped awkwardly into her while she was coming aruond a corner near his quarters.  She didn’t realize it was him at first, so she flailed about madly for a few moments, making her torch weapons instantly known.  “Stay… stay away from me, I don’t want to have to –“  She stopped when she realized she had bumped into a very drunk Hoggle.  “Oh, Hoggle, it’s you!  You nearly scared my head right off my shoulders!  What on earth are you doing? Are you drunk?”

He began swaying his bottle of bourbon as if it were an instrument for public speaking, and kept on walking past her whilst he babbled, “Shoulda wrote that book!  But the damned fieries, blast them, told me to party with them, and what do you know, I get stuck with that old rat.  But it ain’t my fault only, I done made nothin’ of meself… Oh, ‘Oggle, what’ave you done?”  He let out a large belch as he continued on his way, leaving a baffled and speechless Isabelle in his wake.  “But the roses smell nice, that they do.”

Isabelle finally regained her senses and caught up to him.  “Hoggle, where are your parents?  How could you leave them at a time like this?”

“Oh, you’ll have to ask them where they gone… Left no evidence, did they, that they even lived, ‘Cept poor, poor ‘Oggle.  Yup, an’ this, me dad’s bourbon.  Could always count on this old friend, ‘e could.”

“What are you talking about, Hoggle?” Isabelle demanded.  “Why would they leave?  Your father was in horrible condition.  Did someone do something to them?”

He stopped and gave her a good stern look, as much as his drunkenness would allow.  “No, they’re gone, for good.  Me dad’s gone, now me mother.  She took herself with him to the grave.  Now there’s just good ole ‘Oggle, oh yes, ‘Oggle’s one to trudge on through the misery’e is.  Watch me trudge.”  And turn around and continue his trudge he did.

Isabelle grabbed his shoulders and cried, “Oh, Hoggle, I’m so sorry!  Come on, let’s go sit…”

Hoggle brushed her off.  “I’s don’ wanna sit nowheres.  I wanna crawl in a hole an watch bugs.  I wanna be alone.”

“I understand that Hoggle,” Isabelle pleaded, “but you don’t need to be alone at a time like this.  You need to be with your friends.”

“Who’re yous to tell me what I need? Go away!”  He brushed her aside and continued on.

Torn between letting him be alone and wanting to help, Isabelle stood stunned for a second.  She finally made the decision and ran in front of him.  After he tried to evade her halfheartedly, she crouched down and looked at him intensely.  “Hoggle,” she said softly.

In a matter of moments he had burst into tears.  She held him close, his tears drenching the shoulder of her dress.  After he had cried for some time, she took his hand.

“Come Hoggle.  Sleep now, and tomorrow will take care of itself.”  He merely nodded as she led him to his room.  “Get comfortable.  I’ll be back in a moment.”

Isabelle made her way to the infirmary without trouble, and took some herbs from a jar.  She crushed them in a mortar, then made a cup of tea out of the herbs and other tea leaves.  Luckily, the infirmary constantly had a pot of boiling water over the fireplace, so it was a quick task.

She quickly returned with the tea, to find Hoggle in his nightclothes, still shivering from having cried so hard.  She handed him the tea.  He took it without argument once he had climbed into his bed.  After a couple of sips of it, he fell straight to sleep.

“That’ll do it every time,” she said with a slight smile.  She sat a few moments with the sleeping Hoggle and gazed upon him with great affection.  “Poor dear.”  Reluctantly allowing herself to reacquaint herself with the current state of affairs in the castle, she finally got up.  She kissed the dwarf on the cheek before taking one last glance at him from the doorway.  “We’ll all miss you Mr. And Mrs. Hiddlebury.  You raised a fine son.”

Having taken the room’s key from Hoggle’s bedside table, she locked the door behind her for the sake of precaution.  “Just wait, Hoggle, it will get better.  Slowly.”  She pondered the thought, as if she knew firsthand.

“Very slowly…  But it will get better.  It has to, else there’d be nothing worthwhile in living.”

*        *        *

Leah straightened her wig before going out into the somewhat mangled throne room.  Thankfully she and Vindar had found enough sane minions to take care of matters whilst they regained control on a diplomatic level.  She sauntered up to the throne and was greeted by a throng of loudly-mumbling creatures.

“Excuse me,” she said in a mild tone she thought Sarah would hold, “but I need your attention.”  That sounded like her, right? she asked herself.

The throng continued to chatter aimlessly, unaware of her presence.  The chaos had certainly stirred them all up.

“EVERYONE SHUT UP FOR GOD’S SAKE!” she screamed. 

Dead silence followed.

“Thank you kindly,” she added sweetly.  “Now that I have your attention, I need to make a few announcements.  First of all, I want to make it perfectly clear that we will not tolerate any further actions from the elves.  Maybe these guys are a little doped up on crow, but I don’t give a damn.  Sorry guys, nothing against you, but until this is all over, I hate elves.  So elves go in the dungeon.  Got that?”

Everyone nodded in understanding.

“Very good.  I think I’m beginning to like this.” 

They looked confused by the last statement.  Leah shook her head, saying, “Forget that last part.  Just keep looking interested.  Now, as I was saying…  The only way we’re going to get control over things is to use magic.  Anyone interested in joining the efforts to calm down some of these kooky kids, talk to Vindar after I finish, and he’ll show you what to do.  Everyone else has another equally fascinating, great, and life-fulfilling job to do.  I need the rest of you to pick corn.  Yes, you heard me correctly, corn is our new best friend.  Now, now, I don’t want to hear a peep from you kids who didn’t want to eat your corn.  It’s corn or crazies, those are your choices.  I want to regain control over all of our domain, up to the edge of the Labyrinth, does everyone got that?  Don’t take lip from no one.  They give you trouble, you get a little of Vindar’s magic dust and blow it on them, like this…”  Taking some of the dust from her hand, she blew some into the face of a nearby human male.  He was knocked out instantly and fell down rather ungracefully.  “See?  Now he wasn’t too smart, was he?  Gotta be a little quicker on your toes than this guy.  Someone take care of him please?”  Another human male complied, his expression of confusion over his queen’s current flippancy being quite in accordance with the expressions of all the individuals in the throng.  “Alright, so everyone up and at’em.  I want control back by tomorrow evening!  We can’t let that bastard Kaleb think he’s got the one-up on us, no sir!  So go get’em tigers!”

Everyone hurried towards their duties with little excitement.

“And you all get to sleep when we’re done!” Leah added.

A heartfelt excitement suddenly filled the room as they finished filtering out.

Leah walked away from the throne, pulling her wig off without concern as to who might be watching.  Isabelle walked in somberly.  “Oh, good, there you are.  Vindar told me I’d find you here.”

“Hey.  How is Hoggle?”

“Pretty bad.  His father did die this evening.  And I think his mother took her life too, from what I could interpret from Hoggle’s rambling.  He was pretty drunk when I found him.”

“Oh heavens.  Why all this crap?”  Leah shook her head.  “Poor Hoggle.  Where is he?”

“He’s in his room sleeping.  I gave him a little Ulgher Root.  Knocked him right out.  I expect he’ll sleep through the day tomorrow, or so I hope.  It won’t put off the darkness for good, but sleep always helps in times like this.  And there’s no way you can get to sleep on your own, I should know.  So many thoughts going through your head…. What you could’ve done differently, how you would have been better...”  She smiled wanly and stopped herself.  “Sorry, I’m ranting.”

“Not at all.  Sounds like you have some personal experiences rehashing themselves,” Leah said with concern.

“Yeah, I guess I do.  My mother died last year.  Jareth took me away from her about six years ago, or really, from my father.  Father beat me and my mother.”

“I know.  We were in your village right before Sarah became queen.  We could see what your father had done to your mother.”  She put her hand on Isabelle’s shoulder.  “I’m sorry, I haven’t been around.  I didn’t know your mother had passed away.  Didn’t Sarah bring her to the kingdom to live with you?”

“Yeah, right after you went Aboveground to live.  She was happy to be with me, but she was never her old self again.  I’m sure she died of heartbreak.  She hadn’t had much kindness in life, and only trusted me, though I think she still blamed me a little bit for having left.  Or, rather, being taken away.  Like, in her mind, I should have come back.  But I couldn’t.  How could I come back to that life?  She should have left.  She should have loved herself enough to do it.”  A tear welled up in her eye.  “I still blame myself sometimes, I can’t help it.  Like I should have stayed, should have stayed by her side through it all.”

Leah squeezed her shoulder.  “Oh, hun, I don’t have to tell you this, because you already know it…  But you shouldn’t let yourself feel any blame.  It was her choice to let her darkness eat her up inside.”

Isabelle nodded and wiped a tear.  “I’m sorry.  Just, Hoggle’s parents’ passing away kinda brings back all the feelings I had when my mother died.”

Leah pulled her close with an arm round the girl’s shoulder and rubbed her head against Isabelle’s affectionately.  “Don’t you even worry about it.  Nothing to be sorry for.  Sometimes we just gotta renew our tears.  The sadness builds up.  Any excuse is a good one to let the tears go.  Then we can renew our vows to live life to its fullest.”

“Awfully sagely of you,” Isabelle said with a tearful chuckle.

Leah brushed it off with a slight laugh.  “Ah, I have my moments.  But now I’m afraid it’s time to go back to ass-whooping Leah mode.”

“I’d expect nothing less,” Isabelle answered, squeezing Leah’s shoulder in return.

“How’s about we get some shut-eye?  I think Vindar’s got things under control for the time being, and we have a very long day ahead of ourselves tomorrow.  The castle’s fortified enough for now.  What do you say?”

“I’m all for it,” the girl answered.  “Let’s stay in a room together, though, just in case?” she asked nervously.

“Your room or mine?” Leah answered, laughing.  “Wait, that didn’t sound right, did it?”